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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 4, 2017)
4 A ❘ SATURDAY EDITION ❘ NOVEMBER 4, 2017 Siuslaw News P.O. Box 10 Florence, OR 97439 NED HICKSON , EDITOR Opinion An unexpected goodbye The first column I received from Mapleton-area colunist Wesley Voth began like this: This is my favorite time of year here: leaves turning color, harvest and abundance, fre- quent warm sunny days and clear nights, and salmon in the river. But I wouldn’t feel the same appreciation if there were no seasons, and every- thing always remained the same. Yesterday afternoon, almost a year to the day after reading those words from Wesley, we learned that our long-time columnist and friend had passed away just as the leavse he loved so much were turning color during his favorite time of year. Wesley began writing for Siuslaw News years ago, offer- ing his perspectives and insights twice a month through his “View from Upriver” columns, which always began with his appreciative descrip- tions of the natural beauty in his area. His love for the land and keen observance of the intrica- cies of life around him were often used as a creative metaphor reflecting — much like the seasons — the chang- ing issues we face as a commu- nity. It wasn’t until becoming editor a little over a year ago that I had the pleasure of get- ting to know Wesley through our regular exchange of emails twice a month. I discovered a man who was what he wrote: Contemplative, insightful and always gravitating toward nature as a means of keeping perspective and, in no small way, his sense of self. About a year ago, Wesley wrote the piece “Speaking Up” (Oct. 15, 2016), which was markedly different from his earlier pieces. Though he included his signature nature- based metaphor, his tone and message were inherently stronger: We all have opportunities to stand up — and speak up — against abuse wherever we are. Who knows how many lives we improve by doing so? Or how many we let down when we say nothing? In his email, he was almost apologetic, explaining that he felt an obligation to speak out a little more, and beyond the parameters of life “Upriver.” “We all live along the river, so to speak,” he wrote. “I feel the need to say more.” Wesley Voth And he did, telling readers in his Dec. 3, 2016, column “The Challenge of Making a Difference:” I feel a better sense of the scope of the problems facing our time, and the efforts underway to do something about them. I’d like to focus my efforts as I make my resolutions for the New Year. I can start with an easy, but important one: Read and make use of the editori- al page of my local newspa- per. In the months that followed, he utilized this space to help all of us gain a sense of scope on the problems facing our time, and did so with eloquence and a heart tempered with his keen appreciation for life and nature. A week ago today, his final piece was published on this page. He opened his column like this: Here in Mapleton, it is the golden time of year. Our signa- ture trees, the big-leaf maples, are turning the richest of yel- lows and are joined in this by alder and buckthorn, wild cherry and knotweed. Cedar and redwood also shed a portion of their fronds in autumn, and this yellow brown detritus joins the leaves in covering another pumpkin- colored fruit of our woods, the chanterelles. Upon hearing of his passing yesterday, it was a reminder of the fragility of not just life, but those within each of our lives who contribute to the moments of beauty we experience — even without our taking the time to appreciate them. It brought me back to that column of Wesley’s and his words from a year ago: I wouldn’t feel the same appreciation if there were no seasons, and everything always remained the same. Though Wesley has moved beyond the earthly seasons of Mapleton, our appreciation of him will always remain ... Write to editor Ned Hickson at nhickson@thesiuslawnews. com, or c/o Siuslaw News, 148 Maple St., Florence, Ore. 97439 LETTERS V OTE ‘Y ES ’ AND SLEEP BETTER In a few seconds, with the stroke of pen, you can make a difference in the life of more than 1,350 children at Siuslaw Schools 97J by voting to renew Local Option Levy 20-281. Though it’s too late to mail in your bal- lot, there’s still time to bring it to the Florence Justice Center drop box; it must be done by 8 p.m. this Tuesday, Nov. 7. Help maintain smaller class sizes, fund electives, provide needed technology upgrades and ensure better safety and security for our Siuslaw K-12 students. You’ll sleep better at night knowing you said “yes” to a better future for our students, our community and our country. —Rachel I. Pearson, School Volunteer Florence H ELP SERVE OTHERS THIS T HANKSGIVING The Kiwanis Club of Florence, which has been serving the Florence area for more than 30 years, could not accomplish its goals without help from local business- es and citizens. Its largest fund raiser is the Flag program, which raises about $12,000 each year. Kiwanis puts out about 450 flags 10 to 12 times each year, weather permitting. If there is a flag in front of a business, it indicates they are a sponsor and are com- mitted to helping Kiwanis and the com- munity. Part of this money is spent on hosting the annual Kiwanis Thanksgiving Community Dinner. This event is free to all and requires more than 80 volunteers to serve about 600 dinners to area resi- dents. Kiwanis wants to thank the Elks Lodge 1858 and the Siuslaw High School Key Club for the volunteers they provide, as well as River Cities Taxi for helping peo- ple who need assistance getting to and from the dinner. Anyone who wants to volunteer two to four hours on Nov. 22 and/or Nov. 23 is encouraged to do so because the event can use the help. I promise that the act of giv- ing back to your community will be remembered forever. Those who would like to help can email gjvawter@yahoo .com or visit www.florencekiwanis.org —Gary Vawter, Co-Chair Kiwanis Thanksgiving Committee Florence D ANGERS OF FALSE ARGUMENTS In Ian Eales’ Letter to the Editor (Oct. 28), he attempts to argue that gun regula- tions have no affect on gun violence. He describes a period in which gun homicides in the age range 14-24 have increased, but doesn’t relate that finding to regulations, and no study is identified. He adds that gun deaths outside that range have dropped. Certainly, by inference one might sus- pect that that was because of regulations; and an appeal to our emotions by refer- encing the violence in “Miami Vice” does little to reaffirm this argument. Finally, he jumps to England to argue his point based on a historical study by Joyce Lee Malcolm, a staunch advocate of the Second Amendment. The problem with this argument is that it’s based solely on the opinion of one historical writer who leapt to the conclusion that gun restrictions led to more crime. Gun control advocates argue the oppo- site. Unfortunately, Mr. Eales does nothing to validate his argument by identifying well-researched studies published in jour- nals with peer reviews that look specifi- cally at the relationship between gun vio- lence and regulations. More and more university based stud- ies are finding that regulations do reduce gun violence. Dr. Daniel Webster, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, in an interview with Media Matters, pointed to a growing body of research showing significant reduc- tions in gun violence associated with per- mit-to-purchase laws. In this society, when tens of thousands are slaughtered each year by guns, and three times more are seriously injured, it is dangerous to offer false arguments that regulations do nothing to help stop the carnage. Congress needs to fund more valid research on the connections between gun violence and gun regulation. One could benefit from Sir Francis Bacon’s expression: “Knowledge is power.” —Michael Allen Florence T AX PLAN : MIDDLE CLASS SUBSI - DIZING THE WEALTHY With the terror attack in New York ear- lier this week fresh on our minds, the President and the Republican leadership just announced their tax reform and budg- et plan. The proposed budget would cut $156 million for the anti-terrorism pro- gram for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, 2018. Cutting the budget for anti-terror- ism programs doesn’t seem like the route we ought to be going. Wealthy Americans, like our President, would benefit from the repeal of the alter- native minimum tax and eventual com- plete phase-out of the estate tax by 2024; the estate tax only applies to estates worth $5 million or more. This only helps the top one percent of American taxpayers; in short, it takes money out of the economy and allows the very rich to become even richer. Corporate taxes under this “reform” will be slashed from 35 percent to 20 per- cent. This has been a demand by the President, with the theory being that cor- porations will use this extra money to raise wages and create jobs. In the 1980s this was referred to as “Trickle Down Economics.” It didn’t work then and it won’t work now. The corporations will use that money to pay higher dividends to already wealthy shareholders and pay higher bonuses (in the millions of dollars) to cor- porate CEOs The budget would cut nearly $1.5 tril- lion from Medicare and Medicaid over the next 10 years even though, throughout his campaign, the President promised he wouldn’t touch Medicare and Medicaid. Yet there it is on the chopping block. Middle class Americans will lose a valuable deduction on state and local income taxes, also known as SALT. That means most of us will pay taxes on taxes already paid to another governmental agency. The child tax credit would be increased from $1,000 to $1,600, though the $4,050 per child exemption would be repealed. Additionally, it is estimated that this budget and tax reform plan would add somewhere between $1.5 trillion to $2.4 trillion to the nation’s debt. In the past, Republicans have been all about eliminat- ing the national deficit. Once again, the middle class and the poor are being used to subsidize the very wealthy of this country. We should all feel betrayed and angry — and we should let Washington, D.C., hear our collective “No.” —Marybeth Marenco Florence ❘ 541-902-3520 ❘ NHICKSON @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM The First Amendment C ongress shall make no law respecting an estab- lishment of religion or prohibiting the free exer- cise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. USPS# 497-660 Copyright 2017 © Siuslaw News Published every Wednesday and Saturday at 148 Maple St. in Florence, Lane County, Oregon. A member of the National Newspaper Association and Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association. Periodicals postage paid at Florence, Ore. Postmaster, send address changes to: Siuslaw News, P.O. Box 10, Florence, OR 97439; phone 541-997-3441; fax 541-997-7979. All press releases may be sent to PressReleases@TheSiuslawNews.com. Oregon Group Publisher 541-265 8571 Publisher, ext. 318 Editor, ext. 313 Consulting Editor 831-761-7353 Email: echalhoub@register-pajaronian.com Marketing Director, ext. 326 Office Supervisor, ext. 312 Production Supervisor Press Manager James Rand Jenna Bartlett Ned Hickson Erik Chalhoub Susan Gutierrez Cathy Dietz Ron Annis Jeremy Gentry DEADLINES: Wednesday Issue—General news, Monday noon; Budgets, four days prior to publication; Regular classified ads, Monday 1 p.m.; Display ads, Monday noon; Boxed and display classified ads, Friday 5 p.m. Saturday Issue—General news, Thursday noon; Budgets, two days prior to publication; Regular classifiedad,sThursday 1 p.m.; Display ads, Thursday noon; Boxed and display classified ads, Wednesday 5 p.m. Soundings, Tuesday 5 p.m. NEWSPAPER SUBSCRIPTION RATES: In Lane County — 1-year subscription, $76; 6-month in-county, $52; 10-weeks subscription, $23; Out of Lane County — 1-year subscription,$99; 6-month out-of-county, $65; 10-weeks subscription, $29; Out of State — 1- year subscription, $125; E-Edition Online Only (Anywhere) — 1-year subscription, $71. Mail subscription includes E-Edition. Website and E-Edition: TheSiuslawNews.com L ETTERS TO THE P OLICY E DITOR The Siuslaw News welcomes letters to the editor as part of a community discussion of issues on the local, state and national level. Emailed letters are preferred. Handwritten or typed letters must be signed. All letters need to include full name, address and phone number; only name and city will be printed. Letters should be limited to about 300 words. Letters are subject to editing for length, grammar and clarity. Publication of any letter is not guaranteed and depends on space available and the volume of letters received. Libelous, argumentative and anonymous letters or poetry, or letters from outside our readership area will only be published at the discretion of the editor. P OLITICAL /E LECTION L ETTERS : Election-related letters must address pertinent or timely issues of interest to our readers at-large. Letters must 1) Not be a part of letter-writing campaigns on behalf of (or by) candidates; 2) Ensure any information about a candidate is accu- rate, fair and not from second-hand knowledge or hearsay; and 3) explain the reasons to support candidates based on personal experience and per- spective rather than partisanship and campaign- style rhetoric. Candidates themselves may not use the letters to the editor column to outline their views and plat- forms or to ask for votes; this constitutes paid polit- ical advertising. As with all letters and advertising content, the newspaper, at the sole discretion of the publisher, general manager and editor, reserves the right to reject any letter that doesn’t follow the above crite- ria. Send letters to: nhickson@thesiuslawnews.com WHERE TO WRITE Pres. Donald Trump The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW Washington, D.C. 20500 Comments: 202-456-1111 Switchboard: 202-456-1414 FAX: 202-456-2461 TTY/TDD Comments: 202-456-6213 www.whitehouse.gov Gov. Kate Brown 160 State Capitol 900 Court St. Salem, Ore. 97301-4047 Governor’s Citizens’ Rep. Message Line: 503-378-4582 www.oregon.gov/gov U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden 221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg Washington, DC 20510 202-224-5244 541-431-0229 www.wyden.senate.gov U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley 313 Hart Senate Office Bldg Washington, DC 20510 202-224-3753/FAX: 202- 228-3997 541-465-6750 www.merkley.senate.gov U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio ( 4 th Dist.) 2134 Rayburn HOB Washington, DC 20515 202-225-6416 541-269-2609 541-465-6732 www.defazio.house.gov State Sen. Arnie Roblan ( Dist. 5 ) 900 Court St. NE - S-417 Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1705 FAX: 503-986-1080 Email: Sen.ArnieRoblan@ state.or.us State Rep. Caddy McKeown ( Dist. 9 ) 900 Court St. NE Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1409 Email: rep.caddymckeown @state.or.us West Lane County Commissioner Jay Bozievich 125 E. Eighth St. Eugene, OR 97401 541-682-4203 FAX: 541-682-4616 Email: Jay.Bozievich@ co.lane.or.us
